UMF Grigore T. Popa

🏛️ Overview

The Grigore T. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Iași (UMF Iași) is one of the country’s oldest medical schools. Founded on 30 September 1879 as the Faculty of Medicine within the University of Iași — Romania’s first university — it traces its roots to the School of Surgery established in 1859. Since 1991 it has borne the name of Grigore T. Popa, the internationally renowned Romanian neuroendocrinologist.

Iași, the historic capital of Romanian Moldavia, is the country’s second university hub. UMF Iași has built a solid reputation there, in particular through a historically significant and well-structured French-language stream — 150 places a year — and partnerships with more than 90 universities and hospitals worldwide.

What makes the difference at Iași: the university has developed a highly formalised three-stage admission process (application → academic ranking → motivational interview), making it one of the most transparent in Romania. The city also offers the best value for money among the country’s major medical university cities: a low cost of living, but a rich cultural and student life (Iași has more than 80,000 students across all institutions).

UMF Iași is WFME-accredited and features in world rankings, with a particular emphasis on research in neuroscience and medical bioengineering (it has a dedicated Faculty of Medical Bioengineering).

📊 By the numbers

📋 Programmes available by language

Iași is, along with Cluj, the only UMF to offer both medicine AND dentistry in French. It is also the only one to offer pharmacy in English — Cluj and Bucharest teach it in French only.

A fourth international programme: physiotherapy in English (3 years, 45 places, €4,000/year) — one of the few English-language allied health degrees in Romania, and by far the lowest fee in Iași’s international offering.

💡 Iași’s distinguishing feature: its French-language dentistry stream is the largest in the country with 100 places, ahead of Cluj (75). If dentistry is your goal and you want to study in French, Iași should top your list — all the more so as fees there are €1,000/year lower than at Cluj.

Beware of an inconsistency on the official site: UMF Iași’s “Study programmes in French” page still displays, to this day, a fee of €5,000/year — a leftover from an old fee schedule. The Admission 2026 page and the admission regulations in force both state €9,000/year. That latter figure is the authoritative one. We have reported the discrepancy to the university.

Veterinary: no veterinary programme at UMF Iași. It is run by USV “Ion Ionescu de la Brad”, the Iași university of life sciences, a separate institution.

Structure of the programme:

• Years 1–2: basic sciences (anatomy, histology, physiology, biochemistry, biophysics). UMF Iași stands out for integrated anatomy teaching that includes dissection.
• Year 3: semiology, pharmacology, pathophysiology, immunology. Clinical immersion begins.
• Years 4–6: full clinical rotations in the Iași university hospitals.

Distinctive features:

• Medical bioengineering: UMF Iași is the only Romanian medical university with a dedicated bioengineering faculty, which enriches the scientific environment.
• Medical simulation: a centre dedicated to clinical procedures.
• Erasmus+ mobility: 90+ international partnerships, notably with France, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Spain.
• French-language teaching is reinforced by a collaboration with the French Cultural Centre in Iași.
• A well-developed doctoral research programme (359 doctoral candidates).

📝 Admission

Type of admission: school record + online motivational interview

UMF Iași uses one of the most structured processes in Romania, in three distinct stages:

Stage 1 — Registration and application: Filed online via umfiasi.ro with payment of the application fee (€200, non-refundable).

Stage 2 — Academic assessment: Analysis of your school record: marks from the last two years of secondary school, with an emphasis on the sciences (biology, chemistry). The minimum mark required is 6/10 (or the equivalent in your home country’s system). Extracurricular activities, reference letters and volunteering experience (Red Cross, first aid, and so on) count in your favour.

Stage 3 — Online motivational interview:

• Length: 10 minutes, in French
• Applies to candidates admitted after assessment plus the top 50 on the waiting list
• Purpose: to check motivation, the maturity of your career plan, and your spoken French
• Eliminating (pass/fail)

Documents required:

• School-leaving certificate (or equivalent), legalised
• Transcripts from the last two years
• Birth certificate
• Proof of address abroad
• Passport (valid for 9 months beyond the start of term)
• Medical certificate
• Proof of B2-level French (unless exempt — see below)
• Reference letters (optional, max 2)
• Volunteering/experience certificates (optional)
• Parental consent for minors

Exemption from the French test: Nationals of French-speaking countries (France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Senegal, Madagascar and others) and graduates of French-language institutions are exempt from providing a certificate.

2026 timetable:

Additional fees:

• Application fee: €200 (non-refundable)
• Place confirmation: €6,000 (⅔ of the annual fee)
• Balance: €3,000 before 20 July

⚠️ The financial commitment is substantial from confirmation onwards (€6,000 non-refundable if you withdraw). Plan your budget accordingly.

🏥 Clinical placements

UMF Iași is affiliated with a network of 55 university clinical hospitals and 12 polyclinics, an impressive figure for a mid-sized city. Among the main ones:

• St Spiridon Hospital — founded in 1757, one of Romania’s oldest hospitals, multidisciplinary
• Iași Regional Oncology Institute — the regional reference centre
• St Mary’s Children’s Hospital — paediatrics
• C.I. Parhon Hospital — endocrinology and nephrology
• Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases — cardiology and cardiac surgery
• Socola University Psychiatric Hospital
• Neurosurgery Hospital
• CFR Hospital — general medicine

From which year: UMF Iași highlights clinical exposure from year one, which sets it apart from the other UMFs (observation placements, an introduction to the patient relationship). Full clinical placements begin in year three.

Quality of placements: very good, with a high patient volume (Iași draws from the whole of Romanian Moldavia, several million people). The age of the hospitals cuts both ways: deep clinical experience but sometimes ageing equipment. St Spiridon hospital has benefited from recent renovations.

🏠 Student life in Iași

Iași (350,000 inhabitants, 80,000+ students) is the university capital of Romanian Moldavia. The city has the country’s oldest university (1860) and a student life deeply rooted in local culture.

Housing:

• Hall of residence: ~€80–150/month
• Sharing a flat: €150–250/month per person
• Studio flat: €200–350/month

Estimated monthly cost of living: €500–800 — among the lowest of Romania’s major university cities.

Transport: buses and trams, with a very affordable student pass. Iași international airport (IAS) has a few direct links to Western Europe (seasonal flights). Bucharest is 6 hours by train or 5 by car.

Atmosphere: a rich cultural life — festivals, theatres, opera, museums. Young and intellectual in feel. The international student community is large and well organised. Winters are harsh (continental climate, heavy snow), but spring and autumn are magnificent. The city is very affordable for students.

✅ Recognition

The UMF Grigore T. Popa degree is recognised automatically throughout the EU under Directive 2005/36/EC. The university is accredited by ARACIS and the medicine programme is WFME-certified, which also eases recognition outside the EU (notably for the US USMLE examinations).

⭐ Strengths and things to watch

✅ Strengths:

• A historically solid, well-structured French-language stream (150 places)
• A transparent three-stage admission process, with no “black box”
• Fees fixed across all six years (€9,000/year) — no nasty surprises
• A very large hospital network (55 hospitals) for a mid-sized city
• Cost of living among the lowest in Romania
• A wholly student-oriented city, culturally rich
• WFME accreditation, plentiful Erasmus+ mobility
• Clinical exposure from year one

⚠️ Things to watch:

• The motivational interview is eliminating — nerves in an oral setting can penalise some candidates
• Expensive place confirmation (€6,000, non-refundable)
• Very harsh winters (down to −20 °C, heavy snow)
• Geographically distant from Western Europe (limited direct flights, long train journeys)
• Some public hospital equipment is old
• Less international prestige than Cluj, although the quality of training is comparable
• The administrative procedure demands planning and rigour (documents must be prepared early)

🔗 Official links

• University website: umfiasi.ro
• International admission: umfiasi.ro/en/admission/International-Students
• Programmes in French: umfiasi.ro/fr/admission/programmes-de-licence
• Admissions contact: [email protected]
• Romanian Ministry of Education: edu.ro

🧭 To place this university against the other five: see the comparison table of every route — every programme, in every language, at every UMF, with 2026–2027 places and fees.

📚 Sources and methodology

Our method: when two pages on the same official site contradict each other — which happens more often than you’d think on Romanian university websites — we take the current year’s admission page, which is the legally authoritative one, and we document the contradiction rather than hiding it. That is exactly the situation here on tuition fees.

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Last verified: August 2026.